Best Buy ends work-from-home program

'It makes sense to consider not just what the results are but how the work gets done'

Published: 03/06/2013 at 10:44 PM

(CNN/Money) Marissa Mayer might be a trendsetter. Just one week after the Yahoo CEO banned telecommuting at her company, Best Buy is ending its own flexible work program.

Unlike Yahoo’s blanket policy, Best Buy (BBY, Fortune 500) said some of the 4,000 non-store employees who took advantage of its work-from home program still may be able to telecommute or set flexible schedules. But as of Monday they’ll no longer have the freedom to make those decisions without a manager, as they had in the past.

“It used to be a right about which a manager had no say. Now it’s a conversation,” Best Buy spokesman Matt Furman said in an email. “We believe in employee flexibility but are looking for it to come in the context of a conversation between that employee and their manager.”